India has the worst gender gap in BRICS: WEF
October 28, 2014, 7:33 am

India was the second-lowest performing country on health and survival, ranking 141 just ahead of Armenia [Xinhua]

India is among the countries with the worst gender inequality, ranking 114 out of 142 countries in World Economic Forum’s 2014 gender gap index, scoring below average on parameters like economic participation, educational attainment and health and survival.

South Africa scored an impressive 18 while Brazil ranked 71, Russia 75, and China 87.

India slipped 13 spots from its last year’s ranking of 101 on the Gender Gap Index by the World Economic Forum. India is also part of the 20 worst-performing countries on the labour force participation, estimated earned income, literacy rate and sex ratio at birth indicators.

The World Economic Forum Index benchmarks national gender gaps on economic, political, education and health criteria, and provides country rankings that allow for effective comparisons across regions and income groups. It was first introduced in 2006.

On the other hand, India is among the top 20 best-performing countries on the political empowerment subindex.

On the criteria of economic participation and opportunity, India was ranked 134. Its female to male ratio in labour force participation was 0.36. The disparity in estimated earned income was high with females earning $1980 compared to $8087 earned by their male counterparts.

On educational attainment, India ranked 126 with female to male ratio in literacy rate at 0.68.

However, on political empowerment subindex, India ranked an impressive 15. It is the highest-ranked country on the years with female head of state (over the past 50 years) indicator.

The report said that India has the highest difference between women and men on the average minutes spent per day on unpaid work—a difference of 300 minutes. It is also among the countries with the highest difference in the female and male percentage of total R&D personnel. India has one of the lowest percentages of firms with female participation in ownership.

India and China are among the lowest-ranking countries in the sub-index of “Health and Survival”. India was the second-lowest performing country on health and survival, ranking 141 just ahead of Armenia.

Brazil put in a stellar performance by fully closing the gap on both the health and education subindexes, said the report.

TBP and Agencies